November 24, 2011

Have you heard of Saam Farahmand? You should. He’s a genius. And we could all do with a few geniuses in our lives, even if we don’t know them personally. His visual creations should be (dis)played in a digital art museum.

I happened upon his work after a night of web surfing that began with the quest to discover the artist of a particular sound clip from a random dubstep remix. I could say it began in the Philippines as this was where i was first given the mix. While balancing work and my thirst for travel i met many great people in Manila, one of whom sent me home with a hard drive’s worth of music, video clips, and movies. It wasn’t until later that i heard the Project Dubstep (NAZA) mix, burned a CD for my car and listened to it over and over, memorizing the time stamp at which the song was nestled in the mx, backtracking over and over to replay it.

“I can’t give it up.” This was the lyric i repeated in my head until i couldn’t sleep one night and attacked my lappy with curiosity. After discovering the line came from the song Infinity by The XX, i kept googling, and there on a webpage an umpteenth link from where i started was Saam Farahmand.

See, i didn’t forget about him. This man’s perception for visual art is enlightening. Different and weird enough from the norm it immediately sails to the top of my awesome list. He takes music to a whole new level. Music alone is powerful, but another layer of depth is added when accompanied by a [good] visual display.

Farahand’s videos all tend to have a somewhat repeating image or theme behind them, causing you to look closely, squinting eyes so as not to miss the secret. His cinematography conveys so much emotion. His most recent work is for radio soulwax, a 24-hour visual and music carnival that recently came out with an app, which is just as every bit as musically and visually pleasing as the site….and hilarious.

I encourage you to do your own googling and find more of his work. I hope you are wowed as much as i am. And who knows, perhaps you will find your own genius hidden in the depths of the interwebs.